S70 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 7, 1904. 
Trails of the Pathfinders. 
Vm. — Alexandef Mackenzie. 
II,— Across the Continent, 
The next day the forests seemed to be on fire, since 
clouds of thick smoke . rose from the wood with a 
strong odor of burning resin. On the afternoon of June 
ig they saw smoke on the shore, but before they could 
reach land the natives had, deserted their camp. Mac- 
kenzie sent his Indians after them, but they were threat- 
ening and discharged five arrows, which, however, did 
no harm. They had left some property behind them, 
which the men desired to take with them. A few things 
were taken and some useful implements were left in 
exchange. The next morning they- were off early, in 
a fog, and saw two "red deer" at the edge of the water. 
Another was seen and might have been killed but for 
the dog, which frightened it. , These, Mackenzie says, 
are "not so large as the elk of the Peace River, but 
are the real red deer, which I never saw in the north, 
though I have been told that they are to be found in 
great numbers in the plains." Here the natives had 
stripped the bark froni many oi the spruce trees, pre- 
sumably to roof their cabins. A, house was seen thirty 
feet long and twenty wide, evidently to be occupied 
by more than one family. 
The constant accidents to which their canoe had been 
- subjected and the carrying it from place to place had 
so racked and broken it that it seemed almost hopeless to 
go further in it. On Friday, the 22d, Mackenzie, recog- 
nizing the possibility that on his return he might have 
nothing to eat, made a cache of ninety pounds of pem- 
mican in a deep hole, over wdiich a fire was built. 
The next day, as they went on, they , saw a small 
canoe drawn up to the edge of the woods and soon 
after another came out from a small river. The man 
who was in it called to his friends, who at once ap- 
peared on the bank, armed with bows, arrows and 
spears. Although they were evidently much alarmed 
they were very threatening in their gestures and let fiy 
a volley of arrows, which did no harm. Mackenzie 
landed on the other side of the river and stopped there, 
his interpreters trying to pacify the Indians, but with- 
out success. Two men went ofif in a canoe down the 
river, apparently to procure assistance. Mackenzie, 
now having taken the precaution to send one of his 
Indians with a gun into the woods to keep within easy 
reach of them and to shoot any one who might attack 
him, walked along the beach and invited the Indians 
to come over and see him, while his interpreter de- 
clared to them that these people were his friends. At 
length two natives came over in a canoe, but stopped 
a hundred yards from the shore. Mackenzie signalled 
to them to come to land, showing them various articles 
which might be attractive, such as looking glasses, 
beads and other things. Very slowly they drew nearer 
to the shore, but at first would not venture to land. 
At last they came near enough to get some beads, and 
were persuaded to come ashore and to sit down. It 
was found that his interpreters could talk with these 
people, and though Mackenzie tried to persuade them 
to come to his canoe they did not wish to, and asked 
his permission to go back to their own side of the 
river. This he granted, and their return to their 
friends was evidently a matter of great rejoicing, while 
the articles that they took back with them were ex- 
amined with the greatest curiosity. After a little time 
the white men were asked to come over to their side, 
which they did. The Indians were still timid, but the 
distribution of a few trinkets among them and a little 
sugar to the children seemed to strengthen their con- 
fidence. 
These people reported that the river ran to the south 
and that at its mouth white people were said to be 
building houses. There were rapids and falls and also 
very terrible people along the shores; people who 
lived in underground houses, and who might do them 
great harm. The night was spent here. 
Still traveling in his crazy canoe, Mackenzie 
kept on. Before long he came to a camp, the Indians 
of which, as usual, threatened, but the new friends 
made the day before soon set their fears at rest. 
Among the Indians here was a Rocky Mountain cap- 
five, taken by the Crees, who had carried her across 
■■fhe mountains, but she had escaped from them, and in 
*he effort to return to her own people had been cap- 
.ture.d by the tribe vi^ith whom she was now living. As 
he' saw more and more of these natives he found not 
a few people from the Rocky Mountains with whom , 
•Ifj-S'Dwn hunters could perfectly well converse, and un- 
• d^r these' circumstances he did everything in his power 
t-o learn about the course ,of the river down which he 
' was passing. There was evidently a considerable trade 
between the coast and the upper country, for iron, 
/bfass, copper and beads 'were had from the west. 
.•• Mackenzie now had remaining about thirty days' 
provisions and not more than 150 balls, with about 
'thirty pounds of shot, which also might be used for 
balls, though with considerable waste. He was some- 
what doubtful what to do, not only on account of the 
shortness of his supiplies, but because of the great 
length of time that it would take him to journey to 
the sea and return. If he went to the coast by this 
•river it would seem impossible to reach Athabaska the 
same season. He now called a council and asked the 
advice of his people, saying that he wished to try to 
reach the ocean over land, because he thought it would 
be a saving of time, but declared that he would not 
attempt to do this, but would go by water unless they 
would agree that if the land journey proved imprac- 
ticable they would return with him and continue the 
voyage to the discharge of the waters, whatever the 
distance might be. The men were most loyal, and all 
declared that they would follow him wherever he 
should go. He now set out to go back up the river 
to that point which should seem • nearest to the sea- 
shore. Their guide preferred to travel on the shore, 
and although Mackenzie did not greatly like this, he 
thought it unwise to oppose him. The next day, as 
some of the men were walking along the shore with 
the guide,' they met some Indians who threatened 
them. The guide ran away, and Mackenzie's people 
kept with him. Finally the guide escaped from them 
and the people returned to their leader. Every one 
was now greatly alarmed, no one understanding what 
had happened, nor why the Indians were frightened, 
or enraged, whichever it might be. Mackenzie's people 
were absolutely panic-stricken, and it was all he could 
do to hold them together. ■ They selected a position 
calculated for defense and distributed arms and am- 
munition. 
Now followed a time of greaj anxiety. A young 
, woman came to the camp, but they could secure no 
information from her. That night an old blind man 
was captured, returning to the house, having been 
driven from his hiding place in the woods by hunger. 
He was fed and well treated and soon regained confi- 
dence. Occasionally an Indian was seen on the river 
in a canoe, but none of them would approach nor reply 
to any calls. At length Mackenzie decided to leave 
this place and to continue up the river. The canoe 
was absolutely unfit for service, and one man was kept 
bailing all the time, to keep her afloat. On the 27th 
they stopped at an island where there seemed to be on 
the mainland trees which would furnish the proper 
material for a new canoe, and here they stopped and 
built one. Here, too, their guide, who had deserted 
them at the time of the panic, returned, claiming great 
credit for keeping the promise that he had earlier made 
to them. On the ist of .July, however, he left them 
again, with his companions, going up the river. 
The old man they still had with them, but he 
was anxious to get away. The canoe having been com- 
pleted and proving serviceable, they started up the river 
from this island, which they had named Canoe Island. 
It now seemed necessary to reduce the rations, again 
cutting the people down to two meals a day, which 
they did not at all like. Their food now consisted 
chiefly of the dried roes of fish, boiled with a little 
flour and grain, so as to make a substantial and not 
unpleasant dish. At Canoe Island flies had been very 
troublesome, so that Mackenzie says, "During our stay 
there v/e had been most cruelly tormented by flies, 
particularly by sand flies, which I am disposed to con- 
sider as the most tormenting insect of its kind in na- 
ture." 
The way up the river was difficult, often imprac- 
ticable for paddles, and it was hard to use a tow line 
on account of the steepness of the banks. On July 
3 they reached a point which answered to the descrip- 
tion of the place where they should leave the stream 
to go overland to the west, and here a river came in, 
which Mackenzie calls West Road River. Some of 
the men thought it would be better to keep on up the 
stream a little further, in the hope of finding an easier 
crossing, although at this point there was a beaten 
trail. They proceeded, therefore, and before long met 
their guide, who apparently had twice deserted. He 
was accompanied by some other Indians, called Nascud 
Denee, who were friendly, and who declared that from 
their village, a little further up the stream, the road 
to the sea was short. 
On reaching the place where they were to leave the 
river, Mackenzie cached some pemmican, wild rice, In- 
dian corn, powder and trade goods and also took the 
canoe out of the water, placed it bottom up on a plat- 
form and protected it as well as possible. They now 
started on their foot journey, carrying about 400 pounds 
of pemmican, the instruments, some goods and their 
arms and ammunition. 
The journey westward was slow and difficult. They 
met many people, all of whom were friendly, and when 
their guide left them, as he did in a day or two, they 
succeeded in procuring other guides, for short dis- 
tances, from the various villages that they passed and 
went forward with comparatively little difficulty, • al- 
though the almost continuous rain was unpleasant enough. 
The people whom they met as they proceeded showed 
more and more evidences of intercourse with the 
whites, having a number of articles obtained by trade. : 
Most of these people seemed to belong to different 
small tribes of Athabaskan stock. They seemed less 
and less surprised at the appearance of the white men 
and, while still more or less astonished at their fire- 
arms, did not appear to be frightened by the explo- 
sions. Game was so scarce that practically none was 
killed, their provisions being largely fish, obtained 
from the natives or caught by themselves. The killing 
one day of two eagles and three gray partridges is 
important enough to be mentioned. 
Mackenzie describes in considerable detail some of 
the houses of the Indians which he passed. He notes 
also, on July 14, that he had reached a place where it is 
the practice of the Indians to burn the bodies of their 
dead. On the isth they fell in with a village of par- 
■ ticularly clean and attractive people, who were on their 
way to the sea with . articles for trade with the white 
people. They said that in view of the fact that the 
women and children with them could not travel fast 
it would be three days before they could reach the 
end of their journey. This was welcome news to the 
explorer. 
Before they had gone very far, however, these people 
changed their minds, and determined to go to the sea 
by a different and somewhat longer route, and so the 
white men separated from them, having procured guides 
from four new Indians, who had just joined the party 
and belonged to a tribe Mackenzie had not yet seen. 
The way was difficult, full of swamps and fallen tim- 
ber. Ground hogs were seen, and a number of them 
captured, and before long a deer was killed. They 
were now high up in the mountains, and were march- 
ing through the snow. The country became very rough 
and they traveled along precipices, while snow-covered 
peaks frowned on them from above. On these moun- 
tains, according to their guides, were many animals, 
which, "from their description, must be wild goats." 
The timber grew very large. 
On this day their guide hurried ahead, leaving the 
laden white people to follow, and when it grew dark 
the men were anxious to stop for the night, but Mac- 
kenzie pushed on, and at last reached a village where 
he saw fires with people cooking over them. He en- 
tered a house and shook hands, and the people directed 
him to go to a large house, where he was cordially 
received and fed with roasted salmon. A little later 
they were regaled on salmon roes, pounded fine, beaten 
up and flavored with something bitter, which we may 
conjecture to have been soapollalie. The natives here 
were capturing salmon with their dip nets and by weirs. 
They were kindly and hospitable, and had very strong 
beliefs and feelings with regard to their fish. Mac- 
kenzie declared that they never taste flesh, and that 
one of their dogs having swallowed part of a bone 
left at the camp-fire was beaten by his master till he 
disgorged it. A bone having been thrown into the 
river by one of Mackenzie's people, a young man dived, 
brought it up and put it in the fire, and then proceeded 
to wash his polluted hands. The chief of the tribe de- 
clined to let the white men have a canoe, because they 
had with them some deer meat, which, if put in the 
canoe on their river, would cause the fish to leave the 
river, so that the people must starve. Mackenzie asked 
what he should do with the meat, and the Indian told 
him to give it to a native present who belonged to a 
tribe of flesh eaters. The canoe was then loaned them. 
These people seemed to belong to a different family 
from the Chipewyans; at least Mackenzie says their 
language appeared to have no resemblance to that of 
the Atnahs. Seven natives with two canoes took the 
explorers and their baggage down the river. They 
traveled fast, and the skill of the Indians greatly im- 
pressed Mackenzie, who says: "I had imagined that the 
Canadians who accompanied me were the most expert 
canoe men in the world, but they are very inferior to 
th ese people, as they themselves acknowledge, in con- 
-ducting those vessels." 
Just above a village the whole party landed, the In- 
dians preceding the white men to announce their ap- 
proach. When they reached the village they found 
it in a turmoil, the natives armed and rushing about 
apparently in a great state of alarm. There was noth- 
ing to do except to face the music, and Mackenzie 
walked boldly forward into the midst of the village, 
when most of the people laid aside their arms and came 
forward to meet them. He shook hands with those 
nearest to him, when suddenly an elderly man broke 
through the crowd and embraced him, as did also a 
younger man, the chief's son. Another son of the old 
chief approached, and as Mackenzie stepped forward 
to shake hands with him, the young fellow broke the 
string of a handsome robe of sea otter skin which he 
had on and put it over Mackenzie's shoulders. The 
chief took Mackenzie to his house, and treated him in 
a most hospitable manner. He was offered a dish 
made of the dried inner bark of the hemlock tree, 
soaked in fresh salmon oil. ' Food was plenty here, for 
the salmon run was at its height. Fish- were drying 
on lines strung all - about the village. These people 
were -also very careful that nothing should be done to 
alarm their fish. They objected to water being taken 
from the river in an iron kettle, on the ground that 
the salmon disliked the smell of iron. . Wooden boxes 
for holding water were given the explorers, however. 
Here were seen panels made of thick cedar boards, 
neatly joined and painted with hieroglyphics and figures 
